Scottsdale leaders say they don’t expect any negative effects when one of the nation’s largest charitable funds leaves the city for Phoenix. The Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust plans to relocate its Scottsdale office to one near downtown Phoenix.

What would it take to turn the Valley into the bioscience capital of the world? The Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust is banking that $50 million may just do the trick. The trust today announces an ambitious effort to lure 10 of the top minds in the world to Arizona to advance the revolutionary practice of personalized medicine, where treatment or prevention of disease is tailored to each person’s genetic makeup.

The Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust has established a $10 million investment at Arizona State University to "bring catalytic change" to health care delivery, said Dr. Judy Jolley Mohraz, the trust's president and CEO.

The Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust awarded $3.7 million in grant money to sixteen local and two California-based non-profit organizations, a spokeswoman for the trust announced Wednesday.

What would it take to turn the Valley into the bioscience capital of the world? The Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust is banking that $50 million may just do the trick. The trust today announces an ambitious effort to lure 10 of the top minds in the world to Arizona to advance the revolutionary practice of personalized medicine, where treatment or prevention of disease is tailored to each person’s genetic makeup.

What would it take to turn the Valley into the bioscience capital of the world?

What would it take to turn the Valley into the bioscience capital of the world?

What would it take to turn the Valley into the bioscience capital of the world?

It’s become abundantly clear how serious the effort is to make this state one of the world’s premier centers for bioscience. In the span of a few days, plans to put up a total of $75 million to attract the biggest brains in bioscience to Arizona were announced by both the private Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust and Gov. Janet Napolitano in her proposed 2006-07 budget.

The Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust has awarded a $245,000 grant to a Tempe literacy program, which will allow it to double in size. The funds will help the American Association of Retired Persons - Experience Corps, which works with the Tempe and Kyrene elementary school districts. The Experience Corps pairs volunteers 50 and older in one-on-one literacy tutoring to struggling students in grades 1-3.

Principal Richard Riley's vision of a bigger, better Seton Catholic High School in Chandler came closer to reality Thursday with a $3 million grant from the Scottsdale-based Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust.Trustees for the trust, which has allotted millions of dollars quarterly since 2000, announced Thursday they awarded $4.52 million to educational and elderly programs throughout Maricopa County.

The Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust has donated $500,000 to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix, despite a churchwide sex abuse scandal and a sinking economy.

Four East Valley nonprofit organizations are set to receive more than $4 million over the next few years in grants from The Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust.

The Chandler Cultural Foundation has received two grants totaling $61,000 to help defray operating costs at the Chandler Center for the Arts.

About Care, which provides free services through trained volunteers to elderly and physically challenged residents in Chandler and Gilbert, has won a two-year, $44,000 grant from the Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust to be used to provide support for more than 170 East Valley residents.

Hosted by The West Valley Arts Council and made possible through the generosity of Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust, “Picturing Maricopa” is anticipated to be a breakthrough work that documents 15 nonprofits that are serving emergency and basic needs, during the current trying financial times.

Hosted by The West Valley Arts Council and made possible through the generosity of Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust, “Picturing Maricopa” is anticipated to be a breakthrough work that documents 15 nonprofits that are serving emergency and basic needs, during the current trying financial times.

Hosted by The West Valley Arts Council and made possible through the generosity of Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust, “Picturing Maricopa” is anticipated to be a breakthrough work that documents 15 nonprofits that are serving emergency and basic needs, during the current trying financial times.

The Chandler Cultural Foundation has received a $286,000 grant to pay for ticket-sale upgrades at Chandler Center for the Arts.

A statewide plan dubbed the “Campaign for Grade-Level Reading,” spearheaded by the United Way, is a finalist for the All-America City Award.

The East Valley Child Crisis Center holds a “slab party” at 10 a.m. today to celebrate pouring the concrete slab on its new Family Resource Center.

By Garin Groff